


Alone (Forever?)

by KieraElieson



Series: More Than the Sum of Our Parts [6]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Good Friend, Brief mentions of Deceit and Remus, Gen, Logic | Logan Sanders Is A Good Friend, Patton gets anxiety, Though he doesn’t know how to cope with Patton as a dog, Unnamed OC - Freeform, but it’s all happy by the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-24 19:16:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21963064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KieraElieson/pseuds/KieraElieson
Summary: Patton gets left out, and all by himself. He has a very hard time. Thankfully, Logan notices and comes to help.A sequel/bonus chapter to More Than the Sum of Our Parts
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: More Than the Sum of Our Parts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537450
Comments: 19
Kudos: 115





	Alone (Forever?)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gooberdoober](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gooberdoober/gifts).



> Written for gooberdoober, who asked for a chapter with Patton and separation anxiety. I hope you enjoy! :)
> 
> And Merry Christmas!

There was a person. 

Thomas did  _ not _ like this person. They didn’t feel safe. Not at all. 

Because of this, whenever he had to spend time with them, Anxiety spiked high, and Virgil stayed in his room working all day. Patton insisted that they couldn’t be mean to this person, so Deceit also had a much larger workload, and employed both Roman and Remus to come up with excuses and things to talk about. Logan was trying to keep everyone in line, and make sure everything made sense, and just keep a semblance of sanity in the mind. 

But this left Patton with not much to do. And no one to do nothing with. 

They’d known this person for years, and hadn’t yet found a permanent way out of the visits. To make it worse, it was almost twice a year they had to meet, and for several days at a time. 

It was coming again. They were packing now. 

Patton was having a very hard time helping. 

“Maybe we could… watch a movie?” 

“Patton, we have to leave in an hour. A movie would be out of the question.” Logan said sternly. 

Virgil was already jittery, just walking back and forth and muttering about all the bad things that could happen. 

Patton’s face fell. It’d be his last hour with them for a while. He did  _ not  _ like this event. Not at all. He had to blink back tears even as he helped Roman pull out all of his supplies and arrange them to where he could reach them all from one position on his bed. 

Logan was rearranging the mind to where his room had four extra doors, each leading to another side’s room. Each side but Patton. 

And Patton knew why. He even knew it made sense. He didn’t have much to do. He had the rest of the mind palace to himself, and the time to do whatever he wanted. There was no reason for him to be having problems. 

Except he was. He hated being alone. And it was always just so  _ long _ . 

As Thomas’s front door shut behind him, so did all the bedroom doors, leaving Patton feeling like he was left, alone, back in the house. With only the resounding click of the lock in every door. 

  * •^*^••



He thought he was managing. He really did. He kept himself busy. He ate something, even though it was hard to get down. He drank water. He even went to bed at the right time. 

But when he woke up the next morning, he felt more terrible than ever. He got up, and now he felt both terrible and weird. It took him until he tried to open the door to realize why he felt so weird. He was a dog. 

He couldn’t remember shifting. He certainly hadn’t done it on purpose. But he had, and it didn’t seem like he was able to shift back either. Tears ran down his face and he didn’t even have hands to wipe them away with. 

He walked in a circle around his room, shimmying underneath the bed, rather than go around, and going back to the door, as if it would magically be open. But it wasn’t. 

It still wasn’t open the second time he went around, or the third. 

A restless, anxious energy built up in his chest and escaped through his limbs, pushing him to try again, and again. He felt anxious and… and… angry? No, it wasn’t angry. But it made him want to bite something. And to scratch the space under the door, hoping against all logic that he’d be able to dig through the carpet and make a hole big enough to squeeze through. 

More than anything he wanted for someone to open the door. To come inside and hug him and promise to never leave. 

  * •^*^••



Logan wasn’t needed at the moment. Thomas was trying to sleep, Virgil was replaying every second of the day, and Roman was trying to do as Thomas asked, and spin a dream powerful enough to lull him into sleep. He wasn’t sure what Deceit and Remus were doing, but they didn’t seem to be causing problems. 

Logan stretched, groaning as his back popped. He went down to the kitchen to get some water. 

On his way back, however, he heard an odd sound. It wasn’t loud, whatever it was, but it still made him pause. He walked around, searching for its source. 

He stopped outside Patton’s room. It was… a whine? Was Patton hurt? 

He opened the door. Inside was Patton, in his dog form for some reason, laying just inside the door. As soon as he’d opened it, Patton jumped up, barking and pushing into the hallway. 

Logan pushed the door open a bit farther. The room was a wreck. There was stuffing and ripped fabric littering the floor, the mattress was hanging half off the bed, there were scratch and bite marks covering anything below waist height, and the carpet by the door had been torn to pieces. 

Patton was still loudly trying to get his attention. Logan turned to him. 

“Sit. Calm yourself.” He said, not wanting Patton jumping all over him, as he was prone to doing while in this form. 

Patton sat, still vibrating with energy. 

Logan knelt in front of him and offered physical affection by petting and rubbing all over his head. Patton soaked it in, still wriggling, but not trying to tackle Logan anymore. 

“I am going to infer that something happened to distress you.” Logan said, noticing now that Patton had a stripe running from the top of his head all the way down his back where much of the fur was rubbed off. 

Patton barked, thankfully not as loudly as he had earlier. 

“Are you capable of shifting back and explaining it to me?” 

Patton’s outward displays of happiness lessened slightly. 

“I will take that as a no. Is there any way I can help you avoid further distress?” 

Patton pushed forward, his head now resting on Logan’s shoulder. Perhaps this was to be an approximation of a hug? Logan wrapped his arms around Patton. 

He waited a while, but Patton didn’t seem like he was ever going to move. 

“I need to go to bed,” he started, but stopped when Patton’s tail immediately froze. “Would you like to accompany me?” 

Patton barked and was all wriggles and dog smiles again. 

Logan went to his room and turned back the covers on the bed. Patton immediately jumped up and curled up on one side. 

Logan gathered his pajamas and went into the adjoining bathroom, shutting the door. Instantly there was loud barking and whines from his room. He opened the door quickly. 

Patton was in front of the door, and whined, pawing at his leg. 

“Patton. I am merely preparing for bed. Please remain calm. I will endeavor to be as quick as possible, so please wait patiently until then.” 

Puppy eyes, made all the more powerful by Patton’s current form, were turned up to him beseechingly. Logan petted Patton once, but still closed the door to the bathroom. 

Patton began whining and scratching at the door. 

Logan pulled on the pajamas as quickly as he could, and then opened the door to allow Patton inside while he brushed his teeth. 

Patton squished himself between Logan’s legs and the sink cabinet the whole time, nearly making Logan tip over backwards. 

But then he was done, and laid in his bed. Patton laid next to him, resting his head on Logan’s chest. Logan petted him idly before drifting off to sleep. 

  * •^*^••



Until Thomas’s visit was over, Patton stayed with Logan, always in dog form. He followed him closely whenever he went anywhere, laid on his feet while Logan was busy, and eagerly demanded pets when he was not. 

But that was nothing compared to the sheer ball of energy Patton became when Roman and Virgil came out of their rooms. He ran from one to the other and back again, over and over. It was after several hours of this untiring energy that he turned human again. 

  * •^*^••



“Hey, Virge?” 

Virgil looked up from his phone. Patton was standing in the door, looking at him almost sheepishly. 

“Yeah?”

Patton bit his lip and looked down. 

“Is something wrong?” Virgil sat up. 

“No. I mean… kind of…”

Virgil got up and slipped his hoodie on. “Come on, Pat, let's head downstairs. We can get you something to drink and then you can talk about it.”

“No, I— I didn’t want to bother you.”

Virgil set a hand on Patton’s shoulder. “You aren’t bothering me any more than I want to be bothered. Come on.” 

Patton followed him down to the kitchen, unusually quiet, and sat in a chair while Virgil made two cups of tea. Virgil pushed one cup into his hands. 

“So what’s wrong?” 

Patton hid behind his tea for a long minute before he answered. “I’m… I’m afraid to sleep alone.”

Virgil waited for Patton to continue. 

“I just, I worry that, if I fall asleep, I’ll wake up stuck again, and you’ll all be gone again.” A tear ran off Patton’s nose and narrowly missed dropping into his cup. 

Virgil reached a hand across the table, and Patton clung to it. 

“If you want me to, I don’t mind staying with you,” Virgil said. “It’s kind of my own fault anyway—“

“No! It’s not your fault.” Patton protested. 

“It is. You’re the seat of Thomas’s emotions, and I’ve been making him anxious for… several days now.”

“You’re trying to keep us all safe.” Patton said firmly. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Maybe not, but, I could still be going too far. It’s hurting you. And that’s never what I wanted to do.”

Patton squeezed his hand. “You’re doing your best. We all are.”

  * •^*^••



Roman came downstairs the next morning to see a golden retriever laying on the couch, asleep, with a small black cat curled up in his side. Roman crept upstairs again, he could probably convince Remy to get Thomas to oversleep his alarm. 

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone has a prompt or suggestion for the universe, please let me know!


End file.
